The Savannah River. Photo courtesy Mountain Hermit via Flickr Earlier this year, President Obama canceled the federal government's plans to store high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and weapons facilities at the controversial Yucca Mountain site in Nevada -- but now there are concerns that South Carolina could become the permanent dumping ground for the dangerous waste.

That state is home to the Savannah River Site, a nuclear materials processing center along the Savannah River 25 miles southeast of Augusta, Ga. Built during the 1950s to refine nuclear material for weapons, the site no longer has any operating nuclear reactors and is engaged in cleanup activities.

Given the demise of Yucca Mountain, business leaders in South Carolina and Georgia are expressing worries that high-level waste at the Savannah River Site may now be left there permanently. Scientists have warned about potential environmental contamination from long-term storage of such highly radioactive waste in the Savannah River watershed.

This week the SRS Community Reuse Organization -- a nonprofit group working to diversify the region's economy and a supporter of the Yucca Mountain site -- released a report [PDF] calling for a special blue-ribbon panel to study options for disposing of the waste.

As the preface states:

The government's about face on this critical issue leaves state and local leaders with more questions than answers. Those responsible for public safety, job creation, image enhancement, and citizen confidence must now lead in a new reality. They must come to terms with their community's lingering -- perhaps permanent -- role as caretaker for the Nation's highly radioactive waste.

As a region, we are now left wondering what's next? How we will come together in unity to address a path forward in the wake of this broken promise -- one that has implications of the longest possible term and a potential chilling effect on the region's future growth and prosperity?

The group's report says that if and when a panel is assembled to plot a new strategy for high-level nuclear waste storage, the Savannah River Site region's leaders should get a "seat at the table."

This story originally appeared at Facing South.

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A U.S. veteran living in Tennessee has won what's thought to be the first Veterans Administration claim for exposure inside the continental United States to Agent Orange, an herbicide that was used by the military to clear jungles during the Vietnam War.

Agent Orange -- which got its name from the color of the barrels it was shipped in -- was among the herbicides used the U.S. military during the Vietnam era that were contaminated with dioxins, chemicals known to cause birth defects and genetic mutations as well as cancers. It was produced by companies including Dow Chemical and Monsanto.

Earlier this month, the VA granted the claim of James Cripps related to his exposure to the chemical while he was stationed at Fort Gordon, Ga. He sought compensation for medical conditions related to Agent Orange including chloracne, diabetes, and heart disease.

Cripps, who currently serves as the chair of the Vietnam Veterans of America Tennessee Agent Orange Committee, announced the news in an online veterans' issues forum:

On Nov. 2, 2009, I won the first ever VA claim for Agent Orange exposure, "inside the Continental United States." The claim was granted for Chloracne, Diabetes, and Heart Disease with ICD implant, as due to Agent Orange exposure at Fort Gordon, Ga., in the years 1967-1969. You will be able to read the Board Of Veterans Appeals detailed decision along with the supporting evidence at www.va.gov in a couple of months when it is posted. From the website choose Board of Veterans Appeals, then click on Decisions. Next type in the search box Docket No.08-11 937.

A Vietnam War-era Army veteran, Cripps worked as a game warden at Fort Gordon near Augusta, Ga. He was exposed to Agent Orange while spraying the chemical in the lakes around the fort to kill weeds. When he left the military he suffered from chloracne and later developed other health problems related to his exposure.

Documents obtained by WTVF NewsChannel 5 Investigates in Nashville, Tenn. showed that helicopters sprayed at least 95 gallons of Agent Orange at Fort Gordon in 1967. As the station reported last year:

... Cripps is on multiple medications and he's struggling to pay his medical bills. And now the VA is actually garnishing his Social Security checks.

"We have discussed of late, even yesterday, the thought of suicide," he confides.

After years of service, Cripps and his wife feel broken and betrayed.

"I can see why some veterans would give up," Sandra Cripps says. "It's not fair."

Other stateside areas where Agent Orange use has been documented include Fort Chaffee in Arkansas and the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida. 

In 1991 Congress passed the Agent Orange Act, giving the Department of Veterans Affairs the authority to declare certain health conditions related to Agent Orange exposure and making affected veterans eligible for treatment and compensation.

Among the longtime "presumptive conditions" are various cancers, type 2 diabetes, and chloracne. Earlier this month the VA added three new conditions to the list: Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease, and B cell leukemias.

And it wasn't only U.S. military personnel who were exposed to Agent Orange: Vietnam estimates that 400,000 of its people were killed or hurt by the chemical defoliant, 500,000 children were born with birth defects related to their parents' exposure, and another 2 million people suffered related cancers or other illnesses.

This story originally appeared at Facing South.

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This week brought a new piece of journalism from the crack staff of scientists and reporters at Climate Central. It's called "Georgia: Coal and Carbon." Watch:

As always with CC, the piece is accompanied by an annotated transcript that documents virtually every word with links to scientific sources.

Fine work, as usual. I have only two nitpicks.

One: from watching this you'd get the idea that "clean coal" is the only option Georgia has for reducing emissions. Coal utilities certainly think this -- their conclusion is over-determined on that score -- but the rest of us don't have to believe it. See this fact sheet from WRI (PDF) on Georgia's clean options. Not only is "clean coal" not the only option, it's one of the most expensive.

Second, check out this bit from anchor Heidi Cullen on the PR battle over "clean coal":

Opponents of clean coal say that coal is a dirty rock that can’t be wiped clean with an advertising campaign—that mining, ash disposal and combustion are intrinsically problematic.

The other side points to the low cost of coal, and domestic reserves that could last two hundred years or more. That, they say, will help the U.S. remain competitive with fast growing economies like China and India, both major coal users.

This is unintentionally amusing and accurate. The "other side" responds to a argument about pollution by reverting to "you can't do without us! the economy will die!" Which is, you know, BS, but it's also got nothing to do with pollution!

In other words, there is no argument about "clean coal." There's only an argument about whether we can switch to cleaner options.

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Some of the more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash that spilled from an impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee last December is making its way to landfills in poor and black communities in Alabama and Georgia, as we reported last week at Facing South.

It turns out that TVA also looked into sending the waste to Pennsylvania for dumping into abandoned mines -- but that state's Department of Environmental Protection rejected the ash as substandard.

"This ash material was accidentally released from a disposal impoundment and mixed with unknown materials in the river water and bottom sediment," Pennsylvania DEP Secretary John Hanger announced last week. "DEP only certifies coal ash for mine reclamation in Pennsylvania that is not contaminated with other materials and can meet our stringent chemical requirements."

But experts say that Pennsylvania's toxicity standards for coal ash used in such projects are not particularly high -- at least not high enough to keep the ash from damaging water quality in the vicinity of the dump sites.

"PADEP is hurling boulders through their glass house with their public rejection of TVA ash as too contaminated for mine disposal," Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans told Facing South.

Evans is one of the authors of a 2007 report that found widespread contamination of groundwater and surface water across Pennsylvania due to dumping of coal ash waste into abandoned mines as part of its land reclamation program. The report by the Clean Air Task Force found degraded water quality at two-thirds of the sites examined, with levels of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, zinc and other pollutants found to exceed drinking-water and other water-quality standards.

A Pennsylvania newspaper reports that the material was apparently being considered as fill for an amphitheater construction project underway on abandoned mine lands in Hazleton, a predominantly white community in the northeastern part of the state that gained fame in recent years for its controversial efforts to drive out illegal immigrants.

The Hazleton Standard-Speaker quoted a TVA spokesperson as saying the federal company decided on its own against sending the ash to Pennsylvania because the site where it was to be used lacked a liner to prevent the material from contaminating groundwater. Abandoned mines where coal ash waste is being dumped across Pennsylvania typically lack liners -- one of the reasons why CATF's report found such widespread water contamination.

Instead, TVA is sending the spilled coal ash waste from Tennessee to landfills in in Taylor County, Ga. and Perry County, Ala. The choice of these communities for disposal of the waste raises environmental justice concerns, since almost 41% of Taylor County's population is African-American and more than 24% of its residents live in poverty, while Alabama's Perry County is 69% African-American with more than 32% of its population in poverty, according to the latest census data. Residents had no voice in the decision-making process, given that there was no opportunity for public comment.

The landfill officials have pointed out that their facilities have synthetic liners and systems to collect and treat the liquid runoff known as leachate in order to help prevent groundwater contamination. But even lined landfills with leachate collection systems provide no guarantee that the materials dumped into them won't eventually impact groundwater.

In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- which is now overseeing cleanup of the TVA spill -- has acknowledged that all landfills eventually leak. The Environmental Research Foundation points to a Federal Register notice from EPA that states:

There is good theoretical and empircal evidence that the hazardous constituents that areplaced in land disposal facilities very likely will migrate from the facility into the broader environment. This may occur several years, even many decades, after placement of waste in the facility, but data and scientific prediction indicate that, in most cases, even with the applicaiton of best available land disposal technology, it will occur eventually.

Unlike many constituents of ordinary household garbage, the toxic elements in coal ash waste -- arsenic, lead and the like -- do not break down over time. That means that once the landfill liner deteriorates and springs a leak, those chemicals will be present to leach into the groundwater.

In addition, the leachate collection systems used in landfills are far from foolproof, ERF notes. For one thing, the systems have a tendency to clog up and/or corrode after a few decades. And as the fluid builds up and puts pressure on the bottom of the structure, it increases the likelihood of liner failure.

There's no doubt that TVA needs to clean up the spilled ash. The results of independent tests conducted on samples collected downstream from the spill that were released today found dangerous levels of toxic elements present in the water, sediment and fish, with some water samples showing arsenic levels 260 times and lead 16 times drinking water standards. The scientists also found fish with lesions and lost scales, which could be attributed to contaminated water.

But TVA's choice for disposing of the ash is not without its problems, either. Despite assurances by the company and government regulators that their plan is safe, the ash waste presents a very real risk to the communities where it's being sent for long-term storage.

At the very least, the authorities should acknowledge that fact.

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Climate change is a global problem—but as of yet, there’s no global solution. That’s why mayors across the U.S. are taking action, from building green to organizing bike rides, from redeveloping downtowns to cutting emissions. Here are just a few of the municipal leaders who have worked to take our collective future into their own hands.

Bloomberg unveils his grand Plan.PlanNYC 20301. Michael Bloomberg, New York City.
Pop.: 8.2 million
Call New York the accidental eco-city: cram millions of people onto an island, and you’ve got to figure out how to build up, not out. Throw a big park in the middle, and voila: you’ve got an anti-sprawl city that values open space. During his tenure, Bloomberg has made the most of that happy accident, creating an ambitious 127-point initiative called PlanNYC 2030 that encompasses everything from reclaiming waterfronts to repairing electrical grids to reducing traffic congestion. (OK, that last one hasn’t gone so well.) A year after unveiling the plan in 2007, the city had launched a full 93 percent of its components.

Nickels at a climate rally with King County exec Ron Sims, since tapped to head HUD.Oran Viriyincy 2. Greg Nickels, Seattle.
Pop.: 594,000
In some ways, Greg Nickels became synonymous with the phrase “green mayor” after spearheading the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in 2005. Since then, more than 900 of Nickels’ fellow mayors have come on board, Republican and Democrat alike, from all 50 states. No stranger to eco-ideas at home, Nickels—who has led the Emerald City since 2002—has also been instrumental in bringing light rail to the area, pushing to increase investments in open space, and launching an ongoing series of “clean and green” community-service events. He’s up for reelection this year, and one challenger says he hasn’t done enough on the environment. Only in Seattle.

Newsom uses a white hanky to demonstrate clean diesel emissions. Seriously!MTC3. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco.
Pop.: 765,000
Another mack daddy of sustainability, Newsom is almost too green to believe. Since he took office in 2004, the city has reduced government emissions to below 1990 levels, launched the nation’s largest solar incentive program, banned plastic bags, and introduced ambitious green building and green jobs programs. Sometime in the not-too-distant future, city leaders hope to increase wind power by the Bay, including underwater turbines at the Golden Gate Bridge. Speaking at a conference of green IT entrepreneurs this spring, Newsom—who also recently confirmed his 2010 gubernatorial ambitions—offered up his city as guinea pig: “If you have an idea, let me know. We are a laboratory for innovation.”

Malloy in a glamorous mayoral moment.Will Merydith/flickr4. Ed Malloy, Fairfield, Iowa.
Pop.: 9,650
In November, the city fathers in this liberal southeastern Iowa outpost unanimously adopted a Green Strategic Plan. Their vote was more than ceremonial: they also secured a state-funded grant to hire a sustainability coordinator, inventory their greenhouse gases, and create educational materials for residents. The new plan envisions everything from conserving energy to supporting local farms. Malloy, who’s been mayor since 2001 and heads up a local oil company, says the environment-economy connection is clear. He hopes Fairfield’s ideas will catch on: “We want to create a model community, a virtual template that other small towns can adopt to create the same results.”

What a difference a Daley makes.www.drugabuse.gov5. Richard Daley, Chicago.
Pop.: 2.8 million
Since announcing his intention to make Chicago the country’s greenest metropolis, Daley has made great strides. Green roofs cover or are planned for 3 million square feet, topping everything from City Hall to a McDonald’s. Redevelopment and landscaping have revitalized gathering places across the city, from prominent landmarks like Grant Park to neighborhood playgrounds. And the Windy City is committed to increasing its use of renewable energy (though a recent revelation showed things lagging in that area). Chicago is even bidding to host the 2016 Olympics—a bid that hinges on the event being the greenest Olympics in history.

Franklin, my dear, she does give a damn.City of Atlanta6. Shirley Franklin, Atlanta.
Pop.: 519,000
Often held up as the poster child for sprawl, Atlanta boasts more green than meets the eye—and Franklin is to thank for much of the recent progress. Mayor since 2002, she has attacked infrastructure and intangibles with the same gusto, from overhauling the city’s sewer systems to creating a Climate Action Plan. The city is building a public-transit BeltLine, is tops in LEED-certified buildings, and has implemented practices in City Hall that led to a 20 percent decrease in energy usage. A comprehensive private-sector group called Sustainable Atlanta is developing recommendations for further actions, and all eyes are on the future. “We are building a green, sustainable city,” Franklin says. “We do this for our children, and we do this because it is the right thing to do.”

Planner, politico, father, grandfather.RalphBecker.com7. Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City.
Pop.: 179,000
Building on the groundbreaking work of predecessor (and official Grist crush) Rocky Anderson, Becker—who took office in 2008—has already made ripples in the eco-community. Upon taking the helm, Becker introduced his Blueprint for a Green City, in which he pledged to improve public transit, expand greenways, create neighborhood centers to promote walkability, and improve air and water quality. And the former urban planner isn’t just talking the talk; among other concrete steps, the city is piloting hybrid police cars and has undertaken an overhaul of its city code to make sustainability easier for all residents to achieve.

Don’t mess with Jerramiah.Byron Smith/Jersey Journal8. Jerramiah Healy, Jersey City.
Pop.: 242,000
He’s a rough and tumble guy running a historically rough and tumble city. But that just goes to show that green can be pursued anywhere, by anyone. Healy was recently given a Green Leadership Award by the state U.S. Green Building Council chapter. During his five-year tenure, he has held polluters accountable, opposed a controversial reservoir development scheme, and redeveloped brownfields. Up for reelection this month, Healy recently introduced ordinances that would require city departments to pursue LEED certification and green purchasing, and is reportedly considering a ban on plastic bags.

Manny being Manny.City of Miami9. Manuel Diaz, Miami.
Pop.: 410,000
Though some critics have dubbed him “Concrete Manny” due to his love of development, Diaz is paving the way for sustainability in Miami. An early signatory to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, he created Miami’s first sustainability department and a community-wide Green Commission. He has pushed green building, led an energy-retrofit of City Hall that included solar-panel installation, and is converting the city’s fleet to more efficient vehicles. Late last year Diaz launched Bike Miami Days, and this spring the city hosted a week of events leading up to Earth Hour. “We’re on the front line of global climate change here,” Diaz told Newsweek in 2007. “The water level doesn’t have to rise too much for us to be riding around Miami in canoes.”

Walker? I’d rather bike.Robert the Noid/flickr10. Elaine Walker, Bowling Green, Ky.
Pop.: 53,000
This TV producer-turned-politician has her hands full, from increasing affordable housing to contending with the crash of Big Auto, but green is on her radar screen. Transportation issues loom large in this western Kentucky city, and Walker has worked with local bike-advocacy groups (even creating a Mayor’s Bike Ride) and launched a Rethinking Transportation Choices task force. A signatory to the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, she is a proponent of green building and downtown redevelopment. “There’s too much of a perception that going green is a little bit out there and idealistic,” she has said. “It’s not idealistic—it’s vital.”

Cicilline envisions a model future.Cicilline.com11. David Cicilline, Providence, R.I.
Pop.: 175,000
In late March, this native son signed an order requiring all new municipal buildings to be LEED-certified, saying such a move would help create jobs and boost the economy. It was the first step in a 30-point plan called Operation Opportunity that seeks to help this mid-sized New England city rise from the doldrums; other steps include doubling the recycling rate, creating a green jobs training corps, and finalizing site plans for wind turbines. Cicilline, at the wheel since 2003, has also named walkability and sustainable leadership among his goals for the city.

Get your Phil.Tom Story/ASU12. Phil Gordon, Phoenix.
Pop.: 1.6 million
The long-time Phoenician made a splash in March when he unveiled a 17-point sustainability plan for the desert megalopolis he’s run since 2004. During his tenure, Gordon has already overseen eco-upgrades ranging from LED traffic lights to LNG buses, as well as bringing light rail to the city. The new plan aims to make Phoenix the first carbon-neutral city in America, through green job training, building retrofits, and a massive investment in solar energy. It’s making Phoenix hot in a whole new way.

Coleman (left) and Rybak do their thing.Lou Michaels13. Christopher Coleman, St. Paul.
Pop.: 274,000
14. R. T. Rybak, Minneapolis.
Pop.: 377,000
The Twin Cities are in the hands of two progressive mayors intent on doubling the metro region’s eco-efforts. Coleman and Rybak, elected in 2005 and 2001 respectively, have both made sustainability a priority—Minneapolis, for instance, doles out climate change grants to neighborhood organizations, while St. Paul created its own hybrid car-sharing program. Together, the two leaders have created an annual sustainability report and a green manufacturing initiative, and they’re bringing bike-sharing to town. It’s all part of an effort, they say, to make theirs the most livable cities in the country.

Dixson, far left, leads the groundbreaking of Greensburg’s first eco-home.Greensburg GreenTown15. Bob Dixson, Greensburg, Kansas.
Pop.: 850
Talk about inheriting someone else’s problem: Bob Dixson became mayor of Greensburg in 2008, exactly a year after it was devastated by a tornado. But Greensburg has rallied, and the former postmaster is now overseeing the town’s much publicized green rebuilding effort (which has also been documented for TV). Learning as he goes, Dixson has become an eco-evangelist of sorts, traveling the nation to talk up renewable energy, green building, community spirit, and the common sense behind green. “In rural America,” he told Smithsonian magazine earlier this year, “we were always taught that if you take care of the land, the land will care of you.”

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A Georgia coal plant cannot go forward until it receives an air-pollution permit limiting its carbon-dioxide emissions, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore ruled Monday. The ruling marks the first time a judge has used the Supreme Court's classification of CO2 as a pollutant to regulate emissions from an industrial source. Moore's decision overturns a previous ruling that had allowed the Longleaf Energy Plant, Georgia's first new coal facility in more than 20 years, to go forward. Environmentalists say the case sets a heartening precedent. "We will be taking this decision and making the same arguments to push for an end to conventional coal," says Bruce Nilles of the Sierra Club, which is in active litigation over dozens more coal plants across the country. Adds the club's Patti Durand, "I can't be more thrilled. It's a huge ruling. This is a new day in the United States, and I'm thrilled."

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The City in the Forest hopes to get back to its roots.Despite its reputation as a city of wall-to-wall subdivisions, office complexes, and shopping centers, Atlanta's not a complete stranger to matters of green. At the time of its mid-19th century founding, in the woods at the end of a railroad line, it was called the "City in the Forest." And in the early 20th century, the city created the 185-acre Piedmont Park in Midtown (currently ballooning to add another 50 acres).

Since then, of course, the Atlanta of urban planning lore has descended: traffic-choked, overdeveloped, polluted, with a major water crisis and few public transportation options, in a state where 100 acres of open space are gobbled up every day. And while the city has certainly earned that reputation -- Atlanta was ranked the fourth-most-sprawling of 83 metro areas by Smart Growth America -- a greener Atlanta, one that jibes with its bucolic roots, is peeking from behind the veil of smog, giving the city both an environmental makeover and an economic boost.

"Atlanta has gotten so much recognition about being the poster child for sprawl and its legendary love affair with the car," says Will Herbig, director of urban design at Midtown Alliance, which has spearheaded the revitalization of one of the city's core neighborhoods. "We've all realized the status quo cannot continue. There's got to be another way."

The city's new way includes public transportation, with a 22-mile BeltLine project in the works that combines light rail with new pedestrian and bike links; a heavy investment in green building, with the LEED-heavy Emory University campus and the Southface Energy Institute setting new standards for sustainable construction; walkable neighborhoods and mixed-use development; and green-friendly policy, courtesy of Mayor Shirley Franklin. "It's a market advantage for Atlanta to be green when competing with other cities in the region," Herbig says.

Backers of the BeltLine hope the transit project will "boost economic vitality."

Photo: atlantaga.gov

But for the legions of drivers stuck in rush hour traffic every day -- Atlanta ranks fifth on the list of most congested U.S. cities, with peak driving times 46 percent longer than during off-hours -- or for the millions watching their lawns wither due to the severe water shortage -- the city and its suburbs continue to enforce various restrictions on outdoor water use -- Atlanta's shade of green needs to get a whole lot deeper.

Long before LEED was on the tip of every architect's tongue, the nonprofit Southface Energy Institute was helping the Southeast, and then the country, rethink the way they build. Their EarthCraft House green building program, started in 1999, offers a blueprint for energy- and resource-efficient practices with a laundry list of criteria, including site plan, energy efficiency, waste management, and ventilation. It's a sort of local LEED -- albeit one that's gained national attention -- that has now been used in more than 5,500 single- and multifamily homes, with another 9,000 in the pipeline.

But LEED itself is alive and well in the city, too. Atlanta ranked first on SustainLane's U.S. City Rankings in the green building category in 2006, and requires all city buildings to achieve the LEED silver rating. The local university, Emory, welcomed the South's first LEED-certified building in 2001, and green building is springing up all over town.

"Tenants want to be in a building that's been designed from a sustainable point of view," says Bob Hughes, a principal at HGOR, an Atlanta planning firm. He says 80 percent of the firm's projects are seeking some form of LEED certification.

Atlantic Station, the city's biggest smart-growth success so far.

The city's best known green building project is Atlantic Station, a mixed-use complex rising on the site of a former steel mill that's been widely hailed as a successful merging of development and economic interests. When fully built out in the next decade, this city-within-a city will include six million square feet of LEED-certified office space; 5,000 high-rise, loft-style units, townhouses, and single-family residential homes; nearly two million square feet of retail; and 1,000 hotel rooms. Since Atlantic Station opened in the fall of 2005, its developers have realized the first half of their vision, with some 3,000 residents and 5,000 people occupying the offices, restaurants, and shops -- including what they call the "most urban" IKEA in the country.

The complex was designed so people can leave their cars parked. Instead, they can bike on a dedicated lane, walk, or use the free "rubber" trolley, which carries 60,000 people a month to and from a nearby transit site. A commuter café is intended as a hub from which people can find out about mass transit, car- and bike-sharing, and other commuting options. There's also a spot reserved for light rail service, should funding allow the BeltLine to be expanded there.

While the concept of adaptive reuse is certainly battle-tested, for Atlanta, the project broke new ground. "We wanted to try not to reinvent the wheel," says Brian Leary, vice president of design and development for Atlantic Station and one of the project's chief architects. "We went to neighborhoods around the country and tried to unravel the DNA of those urban places and figure out what worked ... that's what was incorporated into the idea of Atlantic Station."

Such inner city, sprawl-reversing initiatives were hard-won, and required both the citizenry and the development community to undergo an ideological makeover. "We still have people who think the way to deal with growth is to require large building lots, [but] all that does is spread out development, and the infrastructure costs," says Dennis Creech, cofounder and executive director of Southface. "No one has ever come back from Paris and said, 'That city is too dense.' ... We have to ask ourselves, are we designing for cars or people?"

Thanks to the efforts of the Midtown Alliance, a 30-year-old nonprofit, Atlanta's Midtown neighborhood has proved that people-centered design can thrive here. Although the area had location in its favor -- it's just a half-mile from the city's center -- as well as rich institutional resources (the High Museum, the Atlanta Symphony's concert hall, and Georgia Tech), by the late-1980s, nearly two-thirds of its buildings were vacant or little used. The area was rife with homeless people and drug addicts. The addition of a heavy rail line and the construction of the 50-story One Atlantic Center, now the third-tallest building in the city, brought in thousands of office workers -- a boost, to be sure, but only during the workday.

It wasn't until 1997, when the Midtown Alliance developed a master plan to foment infill development, that things really began to turn around. Midtown now has 13,000 housing units in the planning stages, and the thriving, walkable neighborhood has welcomed 10,000 residential units now housing 56,000 residents.

The neighborhood revival was greatly aided by a 2000 rezoning that prioritized transit and pedestrian access over accommodating the car. The plan did away with requirements that had forced developers to place parking between streets and buildings, allowing developers of mixed-use projects near transit centers to leave out parking completely -- and making the BeltLine all the more key to the city's reinvention.

Of course, if you're going to take parking off the docket, you've got to offer an alternative, and if you're going to try to retrain a car-addicted citizenry, that alternative better be stellar. "If you try to solve a city for the automobile, you will never solve it," Hughes says. Enter the BeltLine Project, 22 miles of light rail transit and a proposed Peachtree Streetcar route, added to a network of sidewalks, road improvements, and more than 1,200 acres of green space.

Eventually the BeltLine could help connect the dots between Atlantic Station and other major developments, including about 5,600 units of affordable housing that are planned around its proposed network of stations. The city also is trying to take charge of gridlocked traffic with the Connect Atlanta Plan; over the next year, they'll develop a comprehensive assessment of transportation needs and offer a blueprint for future solutions.

But some major hurdles remain for the BeltLine, especially in its money belt. The state has yet to dedicate a stream of funding for mass transit, and in February the Georgia Supreme Court ruled against funding the BeltLine with $850 million in school taxes because such a use violates the state constitution. Voters statewide in November will be asked to decide whether the use of school tax money for so-called Tax Allocation Districts, which helped provide subsidies for Atlantic Station and other projects, should be allowed.

"If you look at Atlanta, it's the only major mass transit system in the country that doesn't have significant support at the state level," says Southface's Creech. "It's crazy -- we're the economic engine for the state and region, and we're getting killed by traffic, yet we don't invest in alternatives."

But if the suburbs around Atlanta are any indication, attitudes may be shifting in the state -- at least somewhat. About an hour southwest, the Callaway Gardens resort will host 1,400 EarthCraft-certified and LEED-silver commercial buildings in village-like clusters in a 13,000-acre natural preserve. The development also has reduced its golf course from 63 holes to 36 as part of its effort to boost biodiversity by replacing grass with native plants. Elsewhere in the Atlanta suburbs, places like Woodstock Town Center, Norcross, and Decatur are incorporating sustainability into their master plans.

Of course, the shift isn't all altruism; it's good business, too. "We cannot keep up with the demand [for sustainable housing] despite a terrible real estate market," says Edward C. Callaway, chair and CEO of the Ida Cason Callaway Foundation, one of Callaway Gardens' developers. "[This kind of development] makes money, and it's great for the environment, and it's good for people."

While the private sector has been busy greening itself, the city government has been playing catch-up. "Atlanta hasn't had as clearly an identifiable public leader," says Carl Smith, CEO of the Greenguard Environmental Institute, which certifies green building materials and products. "We've seen many good unconnected initiatives that sprung up, despite ourselves."

Many in the city look to the folks at Emory University for inspiration. The university, whose 700 acres include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and multiple medical facilities, as well as classroom buildings, residence halls, and other facilities, was ahead of the private sector in formulating a long list of sustainable practices for every aspect of its campus. That list started with the land itself, of which only 46 percent can be used for development.

"As has been true to a large degree nationally, the first people making the shift were academic institutions," says planner Bob Hughes. "Emory has been making a big push that way for a number of years."

But in some cases, the city is actually taking the lead. One key figure helping Atlanta transition from energy and land glutton to a model of sustainability is Lynnette Young. The city's former chief operating officer left her job last summer to helm Sustainable Atlanta, a new public-private initiative funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Kendeda Fund to help city government, along with local business and the community at large, green up its act. "We're going to be led by experts, or providing incentives to attract green businesses to make Atlanta the Silicon Valley of green industries," Young says.

Having commissioned a study on 10 cities' best green practices, Sustainable Atlanta is formulating Green Compact, a set of voluntary sustainability benchmarks covering areas including water consumption, energy usage, and recycling for government and the private sector. Under Mandy Schmitt, a former consultant on green issues and now director of sustainability for the city, Atlanta is already implementing a range of practices recommended by Sustainable Atlanta in its government buildings.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.photo: atlantaga.govAnd Mayor Franklin, whose term ends in 2010, seems determined to leave sustainability as her legacy. In 2005, Franklin was among the first to sign on to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. She also addressed long-standing water, sewer, and storm drain management problems with a $4 billion overhaul.

"The current mayor has a high ratio of talk to action," Herbig says. "Administration after administration kept putting off the investment in infrastructure in water and sewer. She actually tackled that. How many mayors get standing ovations for raising taxes and tackling the sewer problem?"

Atlanta's government, private, and nonprofit sectors finally seem to be clicking on all green cylinders by following through on a powerful combination of sustainable planning, forward-thinking building practices, transit-oriented design, and conservation practices like recycling and better energy management.

Still, enormous challenges remain. The region's unchecked growth has put a severe strain on its energy, transportation, and water systems. "We face particular challenges as one of the fastest-growing regions of the country that's heavily car-dependent, whose energy comes from coal-fired power plants, and as the largest municipality with the smallest watershed in the United States," says Ciannat M. Howett, Emory's director of sustainability initiatives. Georgia Power, the local utility, offers no incentives for creating energy alternatives.

Despite the obstacles in front of and all around them, Howett and Atlanta's other green crusaders hold out hope that their collective work will have an impact -- eventually. "It's still a much tougher message, once you get into a statewide context," Howett says. "But even there, in terms of general consciousness, it's improving."

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Despite an ongoing drought, and despite a recent court ruling that removes Atlanta's right to much of a heavily relied-upon water source, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is lifting a near-total ban on garden watering and swimming-pool filling in the state. "Swim, kids, swim," said Perdue, who didn't announce a start date for the eased restrictions. City and county governments, which are mandated by the state to reduce water use by 10 percent, can still choose to enforce stricter regulations. "We're saying we're serious about conservation. On the other hand, we're saying we're going to let this [sector] use more water over the summer," says a confused commissioner in Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management. "I'm concerned about mixed messages here." Perdue disagrees. "I think Georgians have done their part," he says, adding, "I'm trusting people to do the right thing." Brave man.

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An 18-year water war between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida has come to an end of sorts: A federal appellate court has voided an Army Corps of Engineers agreement that would have given Georgia the rights to nearly 25 percent of federal reservoir Lake Lanier as a source of drinking water for metro Atlanta. Alabama and Florida had sued over the plan, saying it would siphon off water that would otherwise flow to their states. Atlanta, which has been accused of not being mindful of water resources while encouraging rampant growth, is "the big loser here," says water-law expert George William Sherk. The three states are negotiating a new division of water, as a record drought continues.

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Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) declared a state of emergency in 85 of the state's 159 counties due at least in part to anger at endangered-species protections for critters downstream that the governor says take up too much water. The governor asked President Bush to issue a federal disaster declaration that would provide low-interest loans to help businesses hurt by the drought, make federal funds available to state and local governments, and allow less water to be released downstream from the Atlanta area's main water source, Lake Lanier. The state's lawmakers and many of its officials have made no secret they blame the imperiled species of mussels and sturgeon downstream and the federal agencies charged with keeping the water flowing for exacerbating the drought. "If the [Army Corps of Engineers] and the Fish and Wildlife Service do not act now, I will hold them fully responsible for endangering the people of Georgia," said Perdue. "Any harm that comes to humans is 100 percent on their hands."

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Lawmakers in Georgia have introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress to suspend Endangered Species Act protections in times of extreme drought, arguing it would help average folks and businesses cope with the serious water woes now plaguing parts of the U.S. Southeast. Georgia's congressional delegation rallied around the proposal, calling it a "common sense" solution to the state's plight. However, if passed, the bill would apply nationwide, allowing states across the country to seek exemptions from the ESA when their governor or the secretary of the army declares that a drought is threatening human health, welfare, and safety.

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